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14
BABYLONIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS

As the brilliance of a —— stone may I be of value before thee!
Remove the evil, protect my life, so shall I protect thy forecourt, and set up thy image (?).
Let the evil depart from me, so that I may be preserved with thee!
Let me have a propitious dream,
The dream which I dream, may it be propitious, yea, established be the dream which I dream!
The dream which I dream, turn it to good.
May the god Maḫir, the god of dreams, stand at my head!
Let me enter E-sagila, the temple of the gods, the house of life!
To Marduk, the merciful and compassionate, into his merciful hands deliver me!
So shall I do homage to thy greatness and extol thy godhead!
May the dwellers in my city glorify thy might . . . may mankind extol thee!


(IV)[1]

How long, O my mistress, will the mighty foe oppress thy land?
In thy chief city Erech drought has settled
In E-ul-mas̆, the house of thine oracle, blood is poured out like water.
Throughout thy land he has kindled conflagrations, and poured fire out like a column.
O my mistress, I am fast bound to misfortune,
O my mistress, thou hast beset me, and hast brought sickness upon me,
The mighty enemy has trodden me down as a reed.

  1. The text is published in Rawlinson, iv. (2nd ed.), 19, No. 3, and transliterated and translated by Zimmern, Busspsalmen, No. 5, p. 74; and see Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, ii., p. 96.